http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/authors/lyndon-pugh/ Recent content in Lyndon Pugh on Ariadne Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Sat, 19 Dec 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/18/cover/ Sat, 19 Dec 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/18/cover/ The future roles of information professionals are being questioned at a time when boundaries between users, librarians and different kinds of library staff are becoming more blurred than ever. The future may be one where academic libraries will be plagued by delayering, by restructuring and rationalisation; the growth of technology will ensure unpredictable outcomes; student control of their own learning will undermine the mediator function of librarians. At the same time, the actual situation in most universities reveals a vast preponderance of conventional resource use ; a similar preference for the printed form over the electronic, given some differences between disciplines; a liking for conventional organisational forms; a not-unexpected reaction against change on the part of some staff. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/publication/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/publication/ This article sets out to explore some of the issues to do with the establishment of a new periodical publication for information and IT professionals in Higher Education (HE). It addresses the need for a channel of communication which reflects the developing broad spectrum of information services in academic and related institutions, and is intended as an aid to further discussion. Over the last ten years the changes in both conventional library facilities and in the provision of electronic information have accelerated and arguably become even less predictable than they were, for example, in the mid- to late- 80’s. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/interface/ Fri, 18 Sep 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/17/interface/ Phil Brady is one of a small band of computer managers who have made the transition to managing integrated information services. As such his views on the organisational and human issues offer a counterbalance to much that has been written about this area, and indeed to much that is near to becoming conventional wisdom. Brady’s approach to managing a service that contains the contradictions, contrasts and variety of a modern academic information service is based on a few solid principles. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/16/ill/ Sat, 18 Jul 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/16/ill/ The National Library of Australia has selected Fretwell-Downing’s OLIB VDX, the same product chosen by the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee’s LIDDA (Local Interlending and Document Delivery Administration) Project as the heart of the new interlending and document delivery support services for the nation’s libraries. OLIB (Open Library Systems) is Fretwell-Downing Informatics’ library management system, consisting of a family of products of which VDX (Virtual Document eXchange) is the product supporting ILL management. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/16/minotaur/ Sat, 18 Jul 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/16/minotaur/ Looking at the ACRL web pages I noticed that their set of guidelines for extended campus library services was drawn up in 1981, revised in 1988, approved by the ALA Standards Committee in 1990 and is still on their web site. It is a noble and earnest document stuffed with investigation, assessment, profiling, planning, consultation, co-ordination, implementation, finance, personnel, services and standards. I know that librarianship is essentially a practical calling. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/down-your-way/ Mon, 18 May 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/down-your-way/ There cannot be too many information services that are reached by means of a water balanced cliff railway, nor can there be many that operate from a former slate quarry. What is more, the regenerative design of the railway system and its method of computer control offer an appropriate introduction to the principles behind the Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) near the town of Machynlleth in mid Wales. The Centre’s genesis was in the seventies, when a group of enthusiasts set out to create a “living community to test the emerging technologies, finding out which ones worked and which ones didn’t”. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/interface/ Mon, 18 May 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/interface/ There are a number of ironies to be savoured while talking with Derek Law at Kings College London. The library of what was a well known religious institution preparing Anglicans for teaching and the church is now run by a scion of a Scottish Presbyterian family. Known for its strengths in the humanities, the College has produced five Nobel Prizewinners in topics including X rays, DNA and beta blockers. The route to Derek’s room passes the chapel, where the sound of a requiem mass filtered out. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/editorials/ Mon, 18 May 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/editorials/ Much of what is said in this issue of ARIADNE relates to the fundamental aim of the publication, which is to interpret new technology and to strengthen the connections between the technology and the people who manage and use it. Jon Duke, the new chairman of UCISA said at their recent conference in Jersey, “technology is no longer the issue.” John MacColl in his report of this event commented on Diana Warwick’s view that “the key issue is not technology management but people management. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/view-hill/ Mon, 18 May 1998 23:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/15/view-hill/ Following a very long period of involvement in the development and delivery of C&IT, Anne Mumford has recently become Head of JISC ASSIST. From her base in Computing Services at Loughborough University she has the responsibility of supporting and encouraging "those charged with a C⁢ strategic brief in UK HE institutions" so that they "meet the objectives of their information strategies." This covers assistance with the delivery of C&IT on campus, the preparation of briefing papers for senior management, the impact of JISC services within subject areas, training and awareness and the development of JISC's communication channels with the academic community. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/down-your-way/ Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/down-your-way/ “Public libraries can rule the world, given the right attitudes and the right response to changing times”, said Chris Batt, Director of Libraries and Museums for Croydon. Walking around the headquarters of the service and talking to Chris leaves the impression that in Croydon at least there is a strong tide under the library service and a keen entrepreneurial team determined to take full advantage of all opportunities. Behind the Victorian facade of the town hall is a building, completed in 1993, which could typify the public library in the information age. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/editorials/print.html Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/editorials/print.html In her book The Connective Edge, Jean Lipman-Blumen refers to the problem of technological change in the following terms: Nuclear energy, computers, satellite tv, lasers and biotechnology, organ transplants, space exploration and the emerging information superhighway: all these and more have forced us to recognise the reality of interlocking human and technological systems. We have finally come to see the world as a single, albeit complicated, system, one immense set of interrelated pieces. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/cover/ Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/cover/ As this issue goes to print, the response to New Library: the People’s Network [1] is awaited. At the same time, David Blunkett has recently made a statement which can only add to the interest in the topics covered by the LIC proposals. The green paper The Learning Age [2] in some ways pulls together a number of issues dealt with in the Dearing [3] and Kennedy [4] reports and in New Library: the People’s Network. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/view-hill/ Thu, 19 Mar 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/14/view-hill/ From his present position as Director of Strategic and Operational Planning at Dawson Holdings plc Mel Collier can look back over almost 30 years spanning early work with SWALCAP, pioneering convergence at De Montfort, JISC and the Library and Information Commission among other activities. We began with the motivation behind the changes at De Montfort in the 1980’s : “It was clear that the traditional approaches simply weren’t going to be adequate. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/13/cover/ Mon, 19 Jan 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/13/cover/ The Dearing Report (1) represents a most serious attempt to square a circle. It takes as its raison d’etre the need for expansion in higher education in the UK, and chooses Information Technology as one of the engines of expansion; one of the most irresistible and compelling engines of all and yet expensive and unpredictable. This is not where the contradictions of the report end for information professionals. Communications and IT are linked to organisational change, management, decision making, research, estates and so on, but only in passing to libraries, and I don’t believe that the phrase “information services” is used at all. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/13/editorials/print.html Mon, 19 Jan 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/13/editorials/print.html IN THE MAIN ARTICLE IN THIS issue of Ariadne, Maurice Line mounts a reasoned defence of the position of national libraries in the electronic age. In doing so, he asserts the continued value of printed information. His view of the future embraces transformed libraries, but it is a transformation based on what the Director of a major university information service called “the continuum of all forms of information sources.” Elsewhere in this issue there is a review of the Dearing Report which acknowledges that so far the practical impact of C&IT in learning has been blunted, and in the Minotaur column Louis Schmier hurls a few rocks into the path of the Juggernaut. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/13/bl/ Mon, 19 Jan 1998 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/13/bl/ THE DIGITAL LIBRARIES Research Programme at British Library Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC) is at a difficult stage in its development, being currently in no-man’s land awaiting the appointment of a new Research Analyst. The ethos of the RIC is such that a heavy responsibility is borne by the analysts with oversight of the programmes. Sue Howley, the Deputy Director, while outlining the general nature of the programme, put the position: ‘The research analyst is responsible for developing an area and giving it a slant, which inevitably reflects the experience and the interests the particular RA brings to that area. http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/12/interface/ Wed, 19 Nov 1997 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue/12/interface/ Walking into many information centres these days is like a journey into multiple schizophrenia. Work areas are zoned by degree of noise, and users work (or not) singly, in pairs and in any combination up to battalion size. In the midst of all this energy staff often operate in the same way. Yet this is part of the synergy that is sometimes a welcome advance on the monastic silence of 35 years ago.